Without sci-fi, my husband and I probably would have never met. We overlapped for four years at the same college, were enrolled in the same degree program, and even played trivia at the same pub every Sunday night without managing to run into each other once. But thanks to the beauty of the internet, we did have a fateful encounter years later, where we struck up a conversation and instantly bonded over our obsessions with the TV show Lost, the writer Philip K. Dick, and well, Radiohead (who arguably have shown plenty of love for sci-fi concepts in their music).
Our earliest, giddiest, getting-to-know you conversations were fueled by this mutual love for all things sci-fi. He took me through the entirety of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and finally got me to listen to Dune, and I introduced him to Isaac Asimov's Robots Series, and Connie Willis's Doomsday Book. John Scalzi's Old Man's War was one of the first titles I bonded over with my now father-in-law, a voracious lifelong fan of the genre. My now-husband and I watched and re-watched our favorite movies and TV series, and made plans to check out the latest releases together. And just like that, we began planning a very nerdy future.
And so when we got engaged, we knew we had to find some way to represent that oh-so-integral part of our relationship in our wedding. Never ones for the traditional, we chose one reading from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and another from a Margaret Atwood poem "Variations on the Word Love." But still, it felt like we had to do something more...overt.
Finally, we settled on our tables: each would bear the name of a spacecraft from one of our favorite sci-fi novels, TV series, or films, along with a quote from that series. We had a fun time deciding who would sit at which table based on their interests, and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing our DJ announcing each of them when it was that table's turn to head up to the buffet. My best friend (a fellow sci-fi nerd, and my original Lost theorizing buddy) designed each table marker with a very sci-fi font, and my husband and I picked out a quote to represent each. We didn't know how many of our guests would "get it," but that was okay with us. We hoped this personal, admittedly geeky touch would spark some fun conversations amongst our guests, much like the ones that have punctuated our relationship throughout the years.
I think many of my fellow sci-fi and fantasy fans will agree that being part of a fandom sparks an overwhelming urge to connect with others in that group--to share our wildest theories about where our favorite series are heading; to analyze the motivations of characters; and, most of all, just to connect with someone who gets you, who requires no explanation when it comes to your deepest obsessions, who is happy to just nerd out with you. I'm lucky enough to have married the person with whom I most like to nerd out.
Here are a few of the ships our lucky guests got to board:
Ship: Heart of Gold
Quote: "In the beginning, the Universe was created. This had made many people very angry and was widely regarded as a bad move."
One of our favorite, most frequently quoted sci-fi/humor franchises, and my first foray into the genre.
Ship: Discovery
Quote: "I'm half crazy, all for the love of you."
HAL is our favorite fictional AI, so naming a table after the ship he commanded was inevitable, even if it was a little…err…dark. The quote is in reference to his swan song, “Daisy Bell.” Sheds a single tear.
Ship: The Nostromo
Quote: "This thing bled acid, and who knows what it’s gonna do when it’s dead?"
Okay, a lot of these were dark. But Ripley is perhaps the most badass heroine in the genre (she returns in these Audible Originals!), so there was no way we were leaving her off.
There’s a good chance you’ve seen the film adaptation of this "Robinson Crusoe on Mars” story about Mark Watney, an astronaut who is accidentally stranded on Mars in the near future and has to — to use his words — “science the shit” out of his situation (including eat potatoes grown from, um, DIY fertilizer). But the best-selling novel is still worth seeking, especially if you want more of the real-world science in which Weir grounds his thrilling survival story. But don’t worry, you don’t need a PhD to understand it. He makes it all very accessible, and chases it with the charm and wise-assery of Watney’s voice — greatly accentuated by narrator RC Bray’s reading, which won him several Audie Awards.
Ship: Enterprise
Quote: "Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise."
My Star Trek knowledge went from zero to 60 over the course of our relationship, so not naming a table after the Enterprise was pretty much akin to breaking the Prime Directive.
